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Saturday, 6 August 2016

Wandering Camera - August

While looking to catch up on Sky Arts Photographer of the year on the Sky tv box, I came across a whole section of catch up TV on photography.

One of the programs I clicked on, out of curiosity, was a standalone program about David Hockney, looking at his polaroid collage series. It was amazing to see the discipline he exercised in taking perfectly aligned photos, in polaroid form and laying them out in a grid with white space in between to recreate the image. It reminded me of a quilt! I found his later work where he abandoned the grid and overlayed the images collage style more visually interesting though and was inspired to play with this and see what happened.

So, I spent today clicking away on things I could find around the house and came up with this image made up of 16 photos taken not at all in a disciplined way but instead playing with odd angles and some close in, some further away. This was tons of fun! It reminds me of a cubist painting with the angles and broken pieces.

When I first heard the term modern applied to quilts it struck me as a bit odd, as to me, modern in art was Van Gogh, Picasso, Cubism and stuff from the early part of the last century. And yes I see quilts as art - it is hard for me not to see deliberate design decisions in terms of form and aesthetic as art, though not all quilts are made as art, some are. It surprised me too in this documentary that the debate about photographs as art was mentioned - I thought we were past that old chestnut.

Having had a great time clicking away even capturing a self portrait of sorts in the reflection of the shiny guitar, I turned to my favourite subjects to snap shoot! Maggie had woken up from a snooze in the crate and Wilbur came to check on her so I had fun trying to capture their hellos!

I took lots of shots of Maggie, 27 of them and discarded about half! Then I picked a few to try a collage in Photoshop and got this image below. Maggies toys on the left and right and Wilburs big head in the middle!

Bassets have a very distinctive bony head and I think even they look goofy most of the time the have a very proud shaped head!

While wandering around the house, I did capture images of our increasingly cluttered home - I give you Ruth & Gordon's on a Saturday morning:

1. Mum's perfectly made bed complete with remote controls ready for when she next stays over 2. In contrast our messy bed - in my defence I'm not usually the last one up! 3. Gordon's favourite chair from his Grandmother's house - I'm itching to paint it but he won't let me near it, not even to make a cushion... 4. Depression in new sofa (already!) where Gordon usually sits 5. Bedside reading! 6. Gorjuss tin peaking out 7. Dusty make up brushes - made an effort for lunch in town with mum! 8. WD40 not for the racer but for the ladder - a certain someone was supposed to be painting the outside of the house - didn't happen, ladder is still there in hall pretending... 9. Wish I could say that crack in the exercise bike was from lots of use! 10. Ben's toy (puppies have teething issues too and like to chew). Now being used by Maggie - that makes me smile!

I love the Hockney-style photos: my sister has done a really cool version where she sits each family member on the same sofa and takes a load of shots and then collages us all together into one big picture. It looks awesome.

Love that Maggie is using that toy, that made me smile too! Ha on the contrast between your mum's and your bed! Ours looks much the same until I zip in and make it as I, too, am never the last one up. My favourite though is the "self portrait of sorts" - very cool! Close tie is the one of Maggie waking up, Wilbur checking up on her. Aww.

Ruth and Gordon's on a Saturday morning looks like a very comfly place to hang out. Love how you experimented with the camera and made the lovely collages with the photos. The self-portrait looks wonderful. Thank you so much for linking up on Wandering Camera, Ruth!